1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an improvement in the strike plate mounting assembly of a door jamb. It is particularly useful in connection with the metal, especially aluminum, door frame assemblies which are frequently used in modern buildings. Such assemblies generally comprise two jamb members, one for each side of the doorway, and a header for the top, all of which may be integral, but which are usually separate prior to their mounting in the doorway. One of the side jamb members and/or an underlying support is used to mount the door while the other side jamb member and/or and underlying support is used to mount a strike plate.
The strike plate has an aperture therein, and a hollow must be provided directly behind this aperture for receipt of the reciprocable latch bolt of the lock in the door. In mounting a strike plate in the metal door jamb it is customary to provide an opening in the jamb itself for receipt of the strike plate. Adjacent this opening, it is necessary to provide mounting surfaces to which the strike plate can be attached while still providing the above mentioned hollow.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Present methods of mounting a strike plate in a metal door jamb are time consuming and hence expensive. If the jamb is steel, a strike plate opening is cut in the jamb member. Plates are then welded to the rear of the steel jamb member prior to its installation so as to project into the area behind the opening. These plates thus provide surfaces exposed by the opening to which the strike plate may be fastened. This method is time consuming and troublesome. Furthermore, it is not, due to the necessary for welding, used with the aluminum door jambs which are becoming increasingly popular.
One of the most common methods employed with aluminum jambs involves the use of the support beam which ordinarily closely underlies and braces the front section of the side jamb member itself (the front section being that part which in use faces into the doorway). A hole is cut in this support beam smaller than the strike plate opening in the jamb. The hole in the support beam provides the necessary hollow while adjacent parts of the support beam exposed through the strike plate opening provide surfaces for support and attachment of the strike plate. Such an arrangement is used in the type of door frame disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,812,621. A modification of this basic approach is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,966. Here a support plate is welded or otherwise rigidly secured to the support beam prior to emplacement of the jamb member so that the support plate effectively becomes an integral part of the support beam. The strike plate is secured to the support plate, and the latter must have a hole of limited size therein.
One of the problems with the above method of mounting the strike plate on the support beam relates to the cutting of the hole in the support beam and proper aligning of this relatively small hole and the adjacent strike plate mounting surfaces with the strike plate opening in the jamb. If the hole is cut prior to mounting of the jamb in the doorway, the strike plate mounting surfaces are not always properly aligned with the strike plate opening due to slight inaccuracies or differences in the construction of various individual doorways. As this prior construction is often incapable of accomodating such differences regarding strike plates with the same general placement on their door jambs, it is not versatile enough to accomodate intentional relatively large variations of the strike plate placement, as in the construction of doorways for children or wheel chair patients. On the otherhand, cutting the hole after mounting of the jamb is awkward, particularly if the support beam is metal, and involves the risk of damage to the jamb. In either case, cutting of such a hole is undesirably time consuming.